A thirty-five-year-old man on in Texas was facing execution for a murder he didn’t commit. is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m., unless the Federal Courts or Governor Rick Perry grants him clemency. Well it seems that a federal judge has issued a stay in the controversial Jeff Wood capital murder case.

 Wood was an accomplice in a 1996 convenience store robbery. He was sitting in a truck outside when the clerk was shot and killed. The man who pulled the trigger was executed six years ago, but Wood was given a death sentence for the same crime under the Texas law of parties.

UPDATE: CBS News has an initial report declaring that the delay was "so Wood’s attorneys could hire a mental health expert to pursue their arguments that he is incompetent to be executed," an issue that nearly kept him from being prosecuted in the first place. According to the Houston Chronicle:

Wood initially was found by a jury to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. After a brief stint at a state hospital, a second jury found him competent. After he was found guilty, he tried to fire his lawyers before the penalty phase. The trial judge denied the request but Wood’s lawyers followed their client’s wishes and called no witnesses on his behalf and declined to cross-examine prosecution witnesses.

Doesn’t sound like he allowed his attorneys to put on much of a defense, does it? Whether it’s evidence of mental illness, it’s certainly not a rational act to restrict one’s defense in a capital murder trial, particularly when, as in Wood’s instance, he wasn’t actually the trigger man; he’d helped plan the robbery but was sitting outside in the getaway vehicle when the murder occurred.

Short case summary: At approximately 6:00 a.m. on Jan. 2, 1996, while Wood waited outside, Reneau entered the gas station with a gun and pointed it at Kris Keeran, the clerk standing behind the counter. Reneau ordered him to a back room. When he did not move quickly enough, Reneau fired one shot with a 22 caliber handgun that struck Keeran between the eyes. Death was almost instantaneous. Proceeding with the robbery, Reneau went into the back office and took a safe. When hearing the shot, Wood got out of the car to see what was going on. He walked by the door and looked through the glass. Then he went inside, and he looked over the counter and ran to the back, where Reneau was. Wood was then ordered, at gun point by Reneau, to get the surveillance video and to drive the getaway-car.
 
Outstanding facts: 

• Wood suffers from mental and learing disorders. He was abused and beat severely and repeatedly as a child. He is submissive to dominant behavior because of such.
• At arrest Wood was forced into interrogation by the police and did not have council present. Wood was kept awake the entire time. He was refused sleep. He eventually confessed saying it was a planned robbery. He later revoked this statement.
• Wood was found not mentally fit to stand trial. He was admitted into a mental hospital and a couple of weeks later was found ‘trial ready’
• At trial, Wood was not satisfied with his representation. Wood asked to represent himself, but wasn’t allowed to do so. The judge found him not capable of doing this. The judge however, did not argue Wood when Wood said he would then order his attorney’s not to do anything. Result: Jeff had no witnesses during the punishment phase of his trial on his behalf.
• The victims father is against the death penalty and actually campaigned to keep the actual gunman Reneau alive.

Wood was convicted under a Texas law called the LAW OF PARTIES which states that: A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if "acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense he solicits, encourages, directs, aids or attempts to aid the other persons to commit the offense" or "If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy."

The Code of Criminal Procedures permits the infliction of the death penalty only if the jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant "intended to kill the deceased or another or anticipated that a human life would be taken."

THE SAD LIFE of JEFF WOOD

AROUND the BLOGOSPHERE

Federal District Court Stays Jeff Wood Execution for Mental Evaluation - Today, the Federal District Court granted a stay of execution in the case of Jeff Wood to allow the court to consider compelling evidence that Jeff Wood is too mentally ill to be executed. The Court held that the Texas state courts have …

Texas Death Row Prisoner Jeff Wood is Facing Execution for Murder … - A thirty-five-year-old man on death row in Texas is facing execution for a murder he didn’t commit. Jeff Wood was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 pm, unless the Federal courts or Governor Rick Perry granted him clemency. …

Execution Stay Not Being Appealed: Jeff Wood Will NOT be Executed … - In Austin, we will still gather at the Texas Capitol on the sidewalk facing Congress at 11th Street today at 5:30 PM to celebrate the stay of execution and to urge that Jeff Wood’s death sentence be permanently commuted.

More information on stay of execution for Jeff Wood - ABC News has more details on the reason for the stay of execution for Jeff Wood:. The case has received national media attention because it would be one of the few executions under a legal doctrine that made Wood responsible for crimes …

Text of Order from Judge Orlando Garcia to Stay Execution of Jeff Wood - Judge Orlando Garcia’s Order for a Stay of Execution for Jeff Wood - Upload a Document to Scribd. Read this document on Scribd: Judge Orlando Garcia’s Order for a Stay of Execution for Jeff Wood.